Electrical usage for your house???

[irvingj]

Yep. I concur, Eddie- you've got a leak somewhere if your meter's accurate. I occasionally see 2000KWH, but only in the dead of winter when the heat pump's running a lot-- and EVERYTHING in my house (1800 sq ft) is electric: stove, washer, dryer, water heater, etc. (!) Most of the time it's closer to 700-1000KWH.

 

[jas67]

When you check things like your fridge, the compressor isn't always running, so the instantaneous load will change at times.
check and make sure an electric heater in an Air hander isn't on accidently.

The Kill-a-watt has a watt-hour mode that is great for appliances that don't run continuously. It also will tell you how long it has been plugged in, so connect your freezer or fridge to it, and then let it go for a day or so, then check the watt-hours and then divide by the number of hours, andthat tells you the average power. You can then multiply that by 24x30 to get the approx usage per month.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I EXPERIENCED A SIMULAR SITUATION. I DISCOVERED THAT WHEN YOU LEAVE A SATALITE RECIVER ON 24 HRS IT WAS COSTING US 40.00 A MONTH. ALSO WE WERE THE LAST HOUSE ON THE POWER COMPANYS LINE AND THE VOLTAGE WOULD DROP TO LESS THAN 100 VOLTS.THIS WILL INCRESE USAGE. THE POWER COMPANY WENT TO HEAVER WIRE ON THE MILE LONG STREET AND CHANGED EVERY ONES TRANSFORMER.OUR BILLS WERE MORE NORMAL. BUY A PLUG IN VOLT METER AND MONITER IT.

Power is Voltage times Current (P=VI), assuming no power factor, since you probably are metered in KW, and not KVA. If Voltage decreases, power decreases, not increases. Assuming your power load is not changing, then if your voltage decreases, the current will increase, but the power remains the same.
If the power company changed your transformer, they changed the voltage of their distribution line, but this shouldn't effect you. did the power company explain how this effected your bill?

For the Satellite, assuming you pay 10 cents/kwh your box uses 4.63 amps, which seems high to me.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

The Kill-a-watt has a watt-hour mode that is great for appliances that don't run continuously. It also will tell you how long it has been plugged in, so connect your freezer or fridge to it, and then let it go for a day or so, then check the watt-hours and then divide by the number of hours, andthat tells you the average power. You can then multiply that by 24x30 to get the approx usage per month.

Right, I have a couple kill a watts. I was talking about amp probing in the panel, which will be instantaneous.
I saw a newer version of the kill-a-watt in Costco tonight. The new one didn't have all the buttons labeled.

 

[heehaw]

a good monitor is called a TED: "the energy detective": you can put it in your breakerbox an remotely monitor power usage: then turn the breakers off one at a time an see if it changes: the more expensive models can be plugged into a computer to download the info...
heehaw

 

[Sigarms]

2288 kWh for the month of June (hot summer in NC)

3500 sq ft house, high square footage of window area, freezer in the basement, two lights out back running at night, and three independent HVAC systems (2 dual fuel, one A/C-gas for below grade basemet).

Yearly average electric bill around $200

Last year my electric bill doubled to over $400 that had me scratching my head. Turned out the well (lift) pump was running 24/7.

 

[kenstrac]

2288 kWh for the month of June (hot summer in NC)

3500 sq ft house, high square footage of window area, freezer in the basement, two lights out back running at night, and three independent HVAC systems (2 dual fuel, one A/C-gas for below grade basemet).

Yearly average electric bill around $200

Last year my electric bill doubled to over $400 that had me scratching my head. Turned out the well (lift) pump was running 24/7.

You only pay $16.66 per month average.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

a good monitor is called a TED: "the energy detective": you can put it in your breakerbox an remotely monitor power usage: then turn the breakers off one at a time an see if it changes: the more expensive models can be plugged into a computer to download the info...
heehaw

I forgot about TED, I loaded the software once to test. It's a nice product, which sits on the house mains, so you basically monitor the same point as the utility company. It has a remote monitor, or computer monitor, that lets you look all the time at what your energy cost and usage is. I plan on doing a similar function with a watt meter tied to my Web Energy Logger.

 

[westcliffe01]

Eddie: I have 1300 sq floor plan, walkout basement with an additional 600 sq ft finished. Water is from a deep well (about 250 ft) and sewage to a holding tank with the macerator pump that pumps out to the city system (septics outlawed here about 8 years ago). Home and water is heated with natural gas and wood stove.

Dryer, lights, stove and air conditioning is electrical. Last months usage was 575kwh. Goes up to about 750kwh per month if it is hot enough that the air conditioner has to run almost continuously. Do not have a ventilated attic or whole house fan due to humidity in high 90's whenever the temperature is high. Last year had temps in the 90's for well over 3 months. If these conditions were more frequent, we would have to do something to reduce the heat input into the house. Earthtubes (bury 6" -10 pipe at foundation depth or deeper over 100ft to cool make up air for the house instead of pulling in hot ambient air.

Thanks, it's shocking the difference in usage!!! I'm using twice as much electricity or more!!

I have an electric water heater,but changed it a few months ago without any change in our usage.

The hot tub is drained and the circuit breakers are turned off.

The house is 1,000 sq feet with 8 ft ceilings except the family room, which has 11ft ceiling at the peak. There are a total of five windows in the house. Each bedroom has a double pained 3040 window, the kitchen is a 2030 and the family room has a 5040 window. The house is well insulated and shouldn't be very hard to hear or cool. Those space heaters work great and after we take off the chill, will often just have one on to keep us comfortable. The AC is set for 78 most of the time, but Steph does get hot and will lower it to 74. I know that uses more power, but it's not extreme and it shouldn't be adding that much to my energy usage.

My dad is staying in his RV behind us, but the difference in usage from when he's not here to when he is here is minimal and I've accounted for that.

I have a refrigerator and a freezer in my shop that are running 24/7. There was a refrigerator that we had in there that we thought might be using allot of electricity, but it died and for a few months, we just had the freezer going without any noticable change in energy usage. Now with a new fridge, there still isn't any significant change in our usage.

It seems to me that we have these things that should use a normal amount of electricity, but somehow, we're using twice as much as we should, probably three times as much, but I don't know that for sure. It does seem that something is burning allot of power in this house and I don't have a clue what it is.

Could the heat pump or HVAC system be using it all up? What would you look for or how would you test it?

Thank you,
Eddie

 

[txdon]

Eddie, Yearly average in the all electric cabin was about 600 kWh per month.
Low of 410 kWh in May and high of 900 last September's bill.